January 02, 2013

Debt limit fight: will GOP pay the bills it voted for?

I'm glad that President Obama is vowing to stand firm on not negotiating over an upcoming increase in the federal debt limit.

“I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed,” the president said Tuesday night after he successfully pushed Republicans to allow tax increases on wealthy Americans.

This is the Obama that progressives hoped we'd see after his re-election victory.

He's a lot more realistic about how you negotiate, or don't negotiate, with unreasonable fanatics who care much more about their own political asses than the wellbeing of their country. And Obama is speaking more clearly, in simpler sentences.

Absolutely correct: the choice for Congressional Republicans is whether they pay the bills for spending they voted for. That's what every other Congress has done, until the last dysfunctional GOP debt limit fight that led to a downgrading of our nation's credit rating.

If Congress and the President pass legislation that increases federal spending, and there isn't enough cash on hand in the Treasury to pay those bills, obviously the money has to be borrowed. The GOP controlled House knew that when it voted to pass the legislation.

So its the height of arrogant hypocrisy for the GOP to now hold the United States' "full faith and credit" hostage by throwing a temper tantrum and threatening to not pay bills that Republicans were pleased to incur.

This is like someone refusing to pay their credit card bill after buying a bunch of stuff, knowing full well how much money they had in the bank. Such is today's Republican Party: unethical deadbeats who don't want to take responsibility for their spending.

Obama is taking the right position: you don't negotiate over whether the United States should pay its lawful bills. Now he needs to hold fast to that position when the Tea Party crazies threaten to trash our country's economy.